


Touch

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Disability, sads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-05
Updated: 2013-10-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 11:30:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A slowmo shoot goes horribly wrong and Gavin is the one who pays for it. Thankfully Dan is there to help him through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Idk what happened. Multiple chapters maybe? This is terrible, I'm sorry.

To say Dan hadn’t been worried sick on the drive to the hospital would be a bold-faced lie. He had been terrified. Not because he was hurt, because he wasn’t, but because his best friend was lying on the gurney with gauze over his eyes and was shaking.

He had told him. Dammit, Dan had bloody told him that using firearms on chemicals was a stupid, stupid idea. But the idiot hadn’t listened. No, typical of Gavin Free, he had done it anyway and now he was paying for it.

And he had let him do it. Dan had let the man convince him it would be alright. Well they weren’t bloody alright now, were they?

He held onto Gavin’s hand as they sat in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It was a terrifying and relatively silent trip. Gav had only spoken up to complain about a headache and the burn in his eyes intensifying. That couldn’t have been a good sign.

When they did arrive at the hospital for treatment, the doctors sent him home about 4 hours later and told him to rest up and don’t play with chemicals anymore and he would be fine. Gavin promised and he and Dan had returned home to their rented apartment. He was supposed to put medicated drops in his eyes every four hours or so and stay away from intense lighting. It wasn’t hard. Everything was fine when they had went to their separate room to sleep the stress away.

In the morning, Dan was awoken by the frantic shouting of his name. There was panic in Gavin’s voice and, thinking there was an intruder, Dan scrambled from bed in only his boxers and rushed out of the room prepared to defend his best friend and roommate.

There was no one. Gavin was screaming from his room so Dan ran to investigate, but when he opened the door, he found the other man sitting up in bed with his head in his hands, sobbing. That right there was a red flag. Out of all the time they’d known each other, Dan had never seen his best friend cry, much less in near hysterics.

“Gav? What’s wrong, B? Does it hurt?” he asked, concerned, as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

“No… I mean… yes… My… my head is killing me but…” he took a shaky breath before a choked cry escaped him.

“But what, B?”

“I…” he pulled his hands away from his face and looked in the general direction of Dan’s voice but not directly at him, “I can’t see…”

Dan was silent for a moment before his hands shot out and cradled the other man’s head gently, tilting it back to get a better look. His eyes were open but the pupils had a milky film over them that was typical of the blind. Dan’s heart sank for the man. Sight was important in his line of work and especially to fulfill this dream he had of working with that company in Austin. It was all gone now because of one dumb mistake, “Oh, Gav…”

That slight murmur was enough of a confirmation for the other man to break down into uncontrollable sobs and cover his face.

Dan was helpless and could only wrap his arms around his friend and hold him tightly, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He muttered into his hair before pulling him back as a hopeful thought crossed his mind, “But… listen, B. Maybe… maybe its just temporary, yeah? Lets take you to the doctor before we jump to conclusions. I mean. Can you see anything at all?”

The crying subsided to  sniffles as Gavin wiped at his eyes with the backs of his hands, “Its just black…”

Dan bit his lip, “I’m sure the doctor can tell us how long it’ll last. Get dressed, B, and-... oh… um…” He scratched the back of his neck nervously as he realized that the other Brit was incapable of dressing by himself, “I’ll help.”

There wasn’t a response but the unhappy set of Gav’s brow showed his annoyance at being helpless.

One awkward dressing session later and they were sitting in the Optometrist’s office, waiting for the doctor to return with word after several scans.

“They’re taking forever.” Gavin complained, “That’s not good is it?”

“Hush. Don’t fret over it, B. Everything will be fine.”

“You promise?”

Dan didn’t respond. He couldn’t. Not when he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t do that to him.

The doctor returned and immediately Dan knew what he was going to say and he was thankful that Gavin couldn’t see the apologetic expression that adorned the man’s face.

“What’s the word then?” Gavin had asked after a tense silence, he tried to sound chipper and excited but with the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, he failed, “When can I see again?”

Another tense silence and Dan could see Gavin’s knee begin to bounce in anxiety.

“I’m afraid… the damage is permanent…”

And in that moment Dan watched as Gavin’s expression warped into disbelief, “P-permanent?”

“The drops that the hospital gave you caused a reaction with the chemicals still in your eyes and created the hard film that covers your pupils. Basically it gave you a severe case of cataracts. We could do surgery but it would only be minimal and there’s no guarantee. You might be able to see again at some point in the far away future but the chances of that happening are less than 1%.”

Dan could only watch the devastation play out on Gavin’s face before he stopped the doctor from progressing and spoke in a quiet voice, “What do we need to do?”

“I would suggest learning braille if at all possible. One of the nurses should provide you with a walking stick and a book on learning by touch. There are classes to help the newly disabled all around the community. You can look there and enroll him for those if you’ll think they’ll help.” the doctor warily eyed his patient, “Though you may also want to invest in some psychiatry for him… if this is going to be a devastating thing.”

“He just lost everything he’s been working toward for the past 3 years. There’s little else this could be but devastating.” Dan grabbed Gavin’s arm and pulled him out of the doctor’s office.

The man was completely silent, damn near unmoving until they walked into the front door of the apartment and he dropped to his knees, choked sobs escaping him.

“Gavin!” Dan dropped down beside him, wrapping him up in his arms again, “Calm down, B, I’ve got you.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen!” He cried, “We went over the safety protocols 12 times! I don’t understand!” he covered his eyes with the palms of his hands almost as if he were ashamed of them.

“Shit just goes wrong, B.” Dan tried to calm him, “You know that.”

“Its not fair!”  
“Gavin…”

A high pitched whine interrupted them from Gavin’s pocket and he didn’t even bother to reach for it. When the sound came around another time, though, he knew it was a phone call and that it might be someone important, but damn it all if he knew who it even was. He fished the phone from his pocket and shoved it at Daniel, wrapping his arms around his knees and burying his face in them.

Dan looked down at the phone and frowned. It was Burnie. He stood and walked out onto the balcony of their apartment, being sure to keep an eye on his friend through the sliding door, before answering it quickly, “Hello?”

“Gavin?” Burnie’s response chimed in, “You alright?”

“Its Dan. What d’you need?”

“Oh. Hey Dan. Gav around? I’ve got some news about his visa.”

Dan rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “Actually… There’s… There’s been an accident.”

The silence on the other end of the line was nearly deafening until the response came back, quiet and pleading, “He’s not….?”

“No… He’s… alive but… He’s… His eyes are absolutely mullered… He can’t… Burnie, He’s blind.”

More silence followed, then, “Is it permanent?”

“‘s what the doctor said. Said he might as well start learning braille.”

“Shit…” There was a scratching sound that Dan could only assume was the other man scratching at his beard, “What happened?”

“We were shooting for the new slowmo video and… everything just went… wrong… even though we quadruple checked everything. Honestly, Burns, he was fine when he left the hospital but… they gave him these medicated drops and… he woke up to black. Doctor said it gave him a severe case of cataracts because of the reaction. It wasn’t even the accident itself but the negligence of the hospital that caused it.”

“That sounds like a case. You should take that to a lawyer.”

“I don’t know if he’d be up for it.” Dan leaned against the railing and sighed, running a hand over his face, “He’s devastated as you can imagine. I feel horrible because I let it happen. I could’ve told him no. We didn’t have to do that bloody video. He would be fine today.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. It was a freak thing.”

The younger man grunted in response and then everything fell silent again before his voice came out timid and scared of the answer, “You’re going to stop the progress on his visa aren’t you?...”

“I… I need to talk to him about that. I don’t… I don’t want to say he’s… he’s useless to us now… but… sight is a pretty… um… its pretty big part of what we do.”

“D’you want to talk to him?”

“Please?”

“Just… Just go easy on him. He’s already cried himself out I think. I don’t know how much more bad news he can take…”

“Put him on.”

“Right…” Dan opened the sliding door and walked in, closing it behind him and finding that Gavin hadn’t moved an inch since he left. He stepped in front of him, “Gav?”

The other man’s head lifted slowly to look up, but remained unseeing. He squinted as though trying to see Dan through the darkness.

“It’s Burnie. He wants to talk to you.”

Gavin’s eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. He almost looked as if he were about to start crying again. He shook his head and leaned away, his back pushing against the wall behind him, “I don’t want to.”

“Gav. Come on, now. Its probably really late over there. Just hear what he has to say.”

“I don’t want to hear it!” He covered his ears with his hands and squinted his eyes shut.

“It has to be said!” Dan knelt in front of his friend and sighed, “Gav, the man has done so much for you already. At least give him the time of day.”

It wasn’t instant, but Gavin mulled over those words a bit and loosened up a bit, his shoulders dropping in defeat as his hand slowly and blindly reached out in front of him as if accepting the fate this phone call would condemn him to. Tears were already starting to leak from his eyes but his voice was steady as Dan placed the phone in his outstretched hand and he greeted the man on the other end of the call, “Hello, Burnie.”

And Dan excused himself from the conversation, watching the expression on his dejected friend’s face. He looked broken down and depressed and he supposed that was accurate. The soldier couldn’t hear exactly what was being said but the conversation seemed to last a long time, Gavin’s expression twisting every so often and, towards the end, he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and sucked in a sharp breath as if trying to keep himself from crying. He was failing.

Finally, he was prompted to speak but the words were broken and mumbled, his voice cracked, “I understand… Y-yeah… Burnie, th-thank you for… for everything. I-... This wasn’t supposed to happen. I mean we… I couldn’t… I can’t-... I didn’t mean t’...” his voice wavered and his lower lip trembled before he choked out the words in a sob, “I’m s-sorry…”

The response must have been truly something because Gavin lifted his head from his knees with an expression of disbelief and the phone slipped from his grasp before he burst into tears.

Dan rushed back to his side in an instant, picking up the phone, “Burnie? What did you say?”

“I told him we’re going to keep fighting for his visa.”

“Why would you do that if you can’t use him?”

“We’ll figure something out. Besides… when you get deployed next he’s going to need a place to stay, right?”

Dan could not believe what he was hearing, “I mean… Christ, Burnie, he does have family here…”

“We’re just giving him an option. It’s totally up to him.”

He looked back to the still sobbing man next to him, “Goddamn I can’t tell what kind of tears these are but… I really think you helped his mood today. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Now go get him situated. I think he needs you.”

“Right. Take care.” He hung up the phone and set it aside before gathering the other man into his arms and holding him tightly, much like he had this morning. After a long while of tears and choked sobs of disbelief, he heard his friend's stomach growl angrily and pulled back a bit, “C’mon, B. Lets fix you some lunch.”


End file.
